The alternate SC-LCD (Super Clear LCD) version of the phone is the GT-I9023 which is meant for the European (non-UK) market.

In India, Samsung officially announced sale of the unlocked version with Super Clear LCD screen i9023, which will support all GSM-based carriers throughout the country.

This processor combines a 45 nm 1 GHz ARM Cortex A8 based CPU core with a PowerVR SGX 540 GPU.

On December 19, 2011, Google released Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) for the Nexus S.[19] The automatic update was suspended, allegedly due to poor battery performance.

[21] The Nexus S 4G[22](aka Samsung SPH-D720), I9020A, and M200, while taking longer than the GSM variant, received the Android 4.0.4 update.

[32] The review by The Register gave the Nexus S an 85% rating and summarized it as a "cool, innovative device with an eye to snatch Apple’s smartphone crown.

"[33] An AnandTech review praised the display, NFC tag reader, and Android Gingerbread operating system, but noted the lack of 720p video recording, HSPA+ baseband, and external storage support.

CNET noted the lack of 720p video recording, HDMI output and external (SD card) memory support.